She's the Liar by Alison Cherry

Author:Alison Cherry [Cherry, Alison]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 2019-06-10T16:00:00+00:00

Abby’s announcement rattles me, and the last thing in the world I want to do is sit in the loud, crowded dining hall. I’d much rather eat in the library with my math homework for company; Ms. Stamos knows I’m careful, so she lets me eat around the books, even sticky stuff like cream cheese and peanut butter. I long for the quiet of my favorite desk by the window, where I can look out over the main quad and keep an eye on what’s happening without anyone looking back up at me.

But it’s important for me to make an appearance at dinner sometimes. It reminds my classmates that I’m always watching, always listening. So I go.

My first week as president, it was actually exciting to come to the dining hall for every meal. I ate with all the most popular people on a rotating basis, and for a little while, it was exhilarating to know I could plunk my tray down at absolutely any table and no one would turn me away. It’s not like the cafeteria at my old school was a minefield or anything, but nobody really talked to me, even if they let me sit where I wanted. But a week ago I spilled a glass of lemonade down my front, and not a single person even laughed. All the girls rushed to hand me napkins, helped wipe off my backpack, and offered me spare shirts as if I didn’t have more in my room.

After that I realized I could probably do anything I wanted: eat yogurt with my fingers, wear a giant purple hat, get up on the table and do a tap routine between the plates of half-finished chicken pot pie. It turns out that when you hold everyone’s fate in your hands, nobody dares to tease you. I don’t know why it took me so long to figure out that I could run my real life like I ran Capriana’s pretend one.

Jenna and the Astronomy Club girls are sitting at a table near the windows, and I briefly consider going over and sitting with them. Jenna probably feels pretty friendly toward me now that I’ve said we’d consider her petition; it seems like she might not mind if I ate some spaghetti next to her for twenty minutes. But I don’t want to lead her and the other girls on, and sitting with them might imply that I’m definitely going to send them to Florida when I haven’t actually crunched the numbers yet to make sure it’s possible. Even if I move all the money from the play over to Astronomy Club, I’ll probably still have to siphon some funds away from a few other clubs, and I’m not positive I can make it work.

Plus, even if I were sure about the budget, I don’t want friendliness from Jenna that’s purely part of an exchange. I want her to smile at me because she likes me, not just because she thinks I might send her to Cape Canaveral.

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